What we need to grow to be more self-sufficient

[Blackbear]

I agree about figuring out what grows best in one's particular area and concentrating on those. Of course, everybody has to have a few "toys" to play with too! And another thing that comes into play is the ability to store it.

I grow about 30 kinds of stuff (peppers, tomatoes, etc count as one category each). I'm looking at this list a little differently, through "grid down" eyes where growability, longevity, nutrition and seed saving are paramount.

Asparagus - The plot here is old and in decline but we've been putting in more the past two years. Fresh eating only.

Beans, both bush and pole - They can up great but with the heat and bugs here it's hard to save the seed as the bean beetles get 'em.

Cabbage - Long storing and very versatile for fresh eating, krauting and kimchi. Two planting seasons here.

Carrots - They store well, can well and a good source of vitamins. Two planting seasons here. Seed collection of this biennial could be problematic. Going to try that this year by leaving a few in the ground until next year.

Collards and kale - Super hardy, super good for you and here I can grow them year round.

Garlic - Gotta have it! One good crop will last the whole year with extra for planting more.

Herbs - basil, parsley, oregano, thyme, dill, rosemary, sage

Scallions - I have no way to store regular onions and temp swings make them bolt early. Scallions I grow year round while piddling around with regular onions. Easy seed collection.

Field Peas - They love the heat and have few insect problems. I can eat them fresh and unlike green beans, the bugs don't bother the seed so I can let them dry on the vine and store long term. They're a staple here and take the place of other dried beans that don't do well.

Peppers and Tomatoes - Of course!

Summer squash - Maybe... fresh eating only. Too many borers.

Sweet potatoes- Unlike Irish potatoes, I can store sweets in a closet for ages. If I had to choose between the two, the sweets win out. I currently grow Irish potatoes but end up canning them before they get too old. Great for instant stew. But then, there would be no seed potatoes left for next year.

Turnips - Easy to grow for fresh eating and long term storage. Two growing seasons here.

Things I'd drop in an emergency if I had to:
Broccoli - Not necessary if I have collards and kale.
Corn - Needs too much water, fertilizer and space.
Cauliflower - Very iffy crop here due to temp swings.
Cucumbers - I could make do without pickles if I had to and devote that space to something else.
Onions - See scallion note above.
Okra - Not enough volume for the space it takes up but it's really hardy in the heat so I could be convinced to keep it.
Winter squash - Last year was my last effort. Too many vine borers, too much space taken, no cellar to store them in.
Watermelon - water and space hog.

geese this is all great stuff ...great tips to think about …

maybe I should get rid of all my tomatoes and re-configure ..for the new reality ??

[bower]

[mention]GoDawgs[/mention] I would like to hear more about the field peas. What kind do you grow, and how do you cook them as a bean? I'm doing a trial of peas here this year, some varieties that are recommended for drying and using as beans. We can't depend on beans here, peas have a better chance.
[mention]maxjohnson[/mention] I have some amaranth I'm planning to try this year. I think we have to start indoors here and transplant them. Any suggestions about that?
Grains are such a critical food in more ways than one... if we didn't eat it ourselves, a grain that could be feed for chickens would be a big step!
For the new reality.

[maxjohnson]

I don't know about transplanting. I never have too. They germinate like weeds so the volunteers grow on their own from the year previous.

[Texgal]

As this discussion is going on …

Beets : I liked Chioggi , Golden beets (non bleeding nice to bake even ), bulls blood ,
and good old Detroit etc.

some of you might like Rattail radish (air radish pod) very nice pods in fresh salads ...

Chioggi beets are so sweet it was like eating candy.
Trying the rattail radish for the first time this year. Very interested to see how they hold up when the heat comes. And I've never tasted them so looking forward to trying them.

[Blackbear]

As this discussion is going on …

Beets : I liked Chioggi , Golden beets (non bleeding nice to bake even ), bulls blood ,
and good old Detroit etc.

some of you might like Rattail radish (air radish pod) very nice pods in fresh salads ...

Chioggi beets are so sweet it was like eating candy.
Trying the rattail radish for the first time this year. Very interested to see how they hold up when the heat comes. And I've never tasted them so looking forward to trying them.

Be careful with the rattail radish ! ….they can get away on you and become ..a bit of concern ...make sure you have a nice specific
place for them as they can crowd out others with volunteers etc. but the nice peppy pods are a great addition to greens and salads.

[Nanooknorth]

Great lists. Space and climate are limiting factors for me. I know I will never be self sufficient, but I factor in cost, work, and easy availability. Things like dried beans are readily available and cheap, easy to store, not to mention labor intensive to harvest and shell. I buy them. Potatoes are cheap where I live and when the local harvest comes in, there is no way I could grow them for that price. My memories of being given large pans full of peas to shell for hours as a kid and looking at the measly results of my work makes me so appreciate frozen ones and they are not expensive. Some crops mentioned as staples of southern gardens aren’t productive enough for us northern gardeners. Okra,thick walled peppers, and other longer seasoned vegetables aren’t worth the space they occupy. What I do grow is most importantly tomatoes which I can and freeze. I grow winter squash because I like certain varieties better than other more readily available ones. The elephant ear peppers are a good substitute for bells in my climate. I also grow poblanos. I am not a hot pepper person, but they would do well up here. This winter was mild, so I still have arugula and would still have kale. I do grow summer squashes but they are cheap to buy so may not be worth their spot. Cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli have lots of enemies in our organic community garden, comprising their quality, soI gave up on them Kale works and cabbage is cheap. Would love to be more successful with cauliflower.

What I am doing differently this year is leaving the root crops in the ground for digging in winter this year. My beautiful parsnips went mostly to waste drying out in my basement. So carrots, parsnips, beets will stay in place till I need them. When they can be dug will depend on frozen soil. The crows helped themselves to way too many of my tomatoes last season, so I have devised a plan to foil them.

If the food chain breaks down, I may not be able to get everything I want, but I will have enough to get by. The farmers are already planting their fields. Garden plants have been started. Social distancing is not difficult in a garden. I am personally very lucky to live in an area that is probably 80 % Middle-eastern. Since their diet is primarily grains, beans, and fresh fruits and vegetables, they are readily available and affordable at this point. I still have to figure out how to cook some of that stuff, which is always fun.

[Clkeiper]

Great lists. Space and climate are limiting factors for me. I know I will never be self sufficient, but I factor in cost, work, and easy availability. Things like dried beans are readily available and cheap, easy to store, not to mention labor intensive to harvest and shell. I buy them. Potatoes are cheap where I live and when the local harvest comes in, there is no way I could grow them for that price. My memories of being given large pans full of peas to shell for hours as a kid and looking at the measly results of my work makes me so appreciate frozen ones and they are not expensive. Some crops mentioned as staples of southern gardens aren’t productive enough for us northern gardeners. Okra,thick walled peppers, and other longer seasoned vegetables aren’t worth the space they occupy. What I do grow is most importantly tomatoes which I can and freeze. I grow winter squash because I like certain varieties better than other more readily available ones. The elephant ear peppers are a good substitute for bells in my climate. I also grow poblanos. I am not a hot pepper person, but they would do well up here. This winter was mild, so I still have arugula and would still have kale. I do grow summer squashes but they are cheap to buy so may not be worth their spot. Cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli have lots of enemies in our organic community garden, comprising their quality, soI gave up on them Kale works and cabbage is cheap. Would love to be more successful with cauliflower.

What I am doing differently this year is leaving the root crops in the ground for digging in winter this year. My beautiful parsnips went mostly to waste drying out in my basement. So carrots, parsnips, beets will stay in place till I need them. When they can be dug will depend on frozen soil. The crows helped themselves to way too many of my tomatoes last season, so I have devised a plan to foil them.

If the food chain breaks down, I may not be able to get everything I want, but I will have enough to get by. The farmers are already planting their fields. Garden plants have been started. Social distancing is not difficult in a garden. I am personally very lucky to live in an area that is probably 80 % Middle-eastern. Since their diet is primarily grains, beans, and fresh fruits and vegetables, they are readily available and affordable at this point. I still have to figure out how to cook some of that stuff, which is always fun.

put out a few realistic looking snakes. I have run off crows ever since I put out my fake snakes.

[GoDawgs]

@GoDawgs I would like to hear more about the field peas. What kind do you grow, and how do you cook them as a bean? I'm doing a trial of peas here this year, some varieties that are recommended for drying and using as beans. We can't depend on beans here, peas have a better chance.

Field peas also go by the general name of cowpeas, Southern peas and crowder peas (kind of a subset of cowpeas in general). Depending on variety they range from somewhat bush types to rampant viney types. The most common ones around here are the crowder types. Unlike green or English peas, these peas have to have warm to hot weather to grow well. They take about 60 days from seeding to first pick depending on the variety. Last year mine weren't planted until July 19th but that's because they went in behind the corn. They're good for about three weeks of picking, possibly longer but I ran out of time. These are three regular rows and one trellised row from last year. I planted the rows 5' apart to give them running room and me picking room.



I like to simmer fresh shelled peas with home canned tomatoes, frozen homegrown okra, onion and garlic but they're good just as is. You can blanch fresh shelled peas, tray freeze and then bag for the freezer. You can also let them dry on the vine until you hear peas in the pods rattle when dry. Those you can store in jars and then cook them later like you would any dried bean. They also can well. When dry, the peas are a deep red or brownish-burgandy color.

Here's a pretty extensive two page list to give you an idea of a lot of the variety names with descriptions. It's probably the longest list I've seen out there:
https://www.southernexposure.com/catego ... s-cowpeas/

My favorite one I've been growing a while now is a big one called 'Big Red Ripper' which has 10-12" long pods and good size peas, maybe about 15-18 peas to the pod.



I mean, if I'm going to go through the shelling process, I might as well get the most return for the effort. To me it's frustrating to shell a bunch of pods to get a small handful of peas.



I usually let the plants run on the ground but last year played with some on a trellis too and they did really well that way. Because I think I might get four rows worth of peas on three rows of trellis I'm going to grow all of them that way this year. Three 18' rows of trellis.

[Cole_Robbie]

I ordered rattlesnake, lima, a bush horticulture, kidney, and great northern beans, and also purple hulled peas.

[kath]

#Nanooknorth I never had luck with cauliflower until I tried Fremont and Bishop. Both hybrids but I always get huge, gorgeous heads. I also dig 1/4 c. of organic fertilizer around each transplant when I set them out, scratch it in a bit and cover. Keep well watered.

[WoodSprite]

My typical garden is: slicing tomatoes, peppers, bulbing onions, garlic, lettuce, herbs.

Sometimes I'll add: carrots, snow peas, snap peas, bush beans, pole beans, kale, spinach (that I grew for the first time last year and loved!).

When the crap hit the fan, I thought about what we tend to eat and don't grow.

This year I'm growing all of the above and in larger amounts plus adding: potatoes, shelling peas, lima beans, zucchini, brussels sprouts, paste tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, leeks, bunching onions, additional varieties of lettuce, additional varieties of spinach, additional herbs.

My husband is starting an asparagus patch but it will be a few years before harvest.

I'm thinking about placing another order for black beans and kidney beans.

It's probably more than we'll eat, can and freeze but I figure I can share extras with friends (via contact-free pick up) and tell them to wash it well to be safe.

[WoodSprite]

Oops. Sorry. I jumped in with both feet and commented (above). I thought you asked what we were growing different this year because of world events. Now that I've reread the original question and other comments, I see I was wrong.

So,in response to your question, I'd make a list of what you and your family normally eat. Then see what of those items you could grow and can/freeze/store. I know that if I grew something that wasn't part of our regular diet (like squash, cabbage, beets, turnips, parsnips, etc.), we wouldn't eat it and it would just take up space in the garden and pantry and go bad. So I'd rather grow and can/freeze/store more of things that I know we'll eat and enjoy.

[Blackbear]

lol I can see you all are still at it lol ….

ok then ... In my "covid victory garden " ..besides a small hill of zucchini ...would be some spaghetti squash or stipetti squash

[Clkeiper]

A HIGHTUNNEL you ALL. A hightunnel. that has been the best part of my gardening since we started doing this for farmers markets. anyone living in the north needs a little longer season than what we get or a little nicer "weather" to harvest our winter crops.. I just picked the Brussel sprouts in my high tunnel this past week. they usually wouldn't survive the winter outside. and the bigger the better for a structure. If I can or could do all my gardening inside a high tunnel I would. My largest structure is 26x96 and I wish I had another one that size or longer.

[Nanooknorth]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I do think spagetti squash is worth the space. We have one small one left and have been eating it all winter as well as giving several away at harvest.i have downloaded many recipes foe variety.
Thanks for suggestions on cauliflower and colorful snakes.

[Booerry85]

A lot of good suggestions here! I would also think about perennials. Things like asparagus, garlic, chives, oregano, thyme, rosemary, sunchokes, berries & fruit trees.

[GoDawgs]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I do think spagetti squash is worth the space. We have one small one left and have been eating it all winter as well as giving several away at harvest.i have downloaded many recipes foe variety.
Thanks for suggestions on cauliflower and colorful snakes.

I forgot about the spaghetti squash! Thanks for the reminder. I usually plant one hill and it makes a plenty. Last year I had two hills... what was I thinking? We still have a few left!

Interestingly, it's the only squash, summer or the last effort at winter squash, that wasn't bothered by the borers. Go figure. I'll be growing one hill this year.

[brownrexx]

We also like spaghetti squash but only eat it a couple of times a year so one hill is more than enough for us. However the borers seem to like it and the last couple of years I didn't get any squash from them.

I decided to give acorn squash another try last year. Usually the borers kill them too but for some reason last year they left the plants alone and I got about 20 squash. We ate them all.

[DMF]

How does one grow toilet paper, the one essential for civilization?